“There is no point in appearing cutting edge and cool, because history has already got you marked down as the barely sentient ancestor whose beliefs we have already advanced beyond.”
I know I am, I cannot help it, it’s just my charisma, my natural magic. But enough of me, even the word ‘fascinating’ is fascinating. It crops up all over the place, the ‘fascinator’ which started off as a light crocheted hood, evolved into a ‘cocktail hat’ which perches precariously on top of the hair, and now apparently we have the hatinator, which is the bastard offspring of the fascinator and the hat.
Now the origin of the term fascinator is reasonable, it derives from the Middle French fasciner, which means ‘to enchant’ or ‘bewitch’. Thus a pretty girl wearing a fascinator can look enchanting or bewitching. Note that this is involves a modern definition of enchanting and bewitching but we’ll let that one pass.
The French term goes back to the Latin, fascinare which also means bewitch or enchant, and derives from the Latin word fascinus which was a…
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Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Great post
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Jim’s always worth a read 🙂
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exactly
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It came into the English language about 1590 and would have held on to its original meaning even when the ‘new’ meaning emerged. one meaning lies buried beneath another.
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Enthusiasm – having a deity dwelling within; passion – suffering; sane – healthy; cunning – able / knowing, weird – supernatural; bask – wallow in blood; silly – happy; dire – terrifying / hateful; genius – attendant Spirit; ‘pharma’ – poison; giddy – related to god; pane – piece of cloth; wicked – fieldy; stark – strong; plaster – medicinal plant; esoteric – belonging to an inner circle; nice – ignorant….
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Even the language we think we know changes over time… even in a lifetime.
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is it less rich or not?
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I doubt it… though nostalgia may think so. We lose and gain words, but also have a treasure trail to play with stretching back through time.
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